Cowboy Space, was founded less than two years ago to develop space solar energy, attracted 275 million dollars in a Series B funding round. The company plans to build rockets, the upper stages of which after entering low Earth orbit (LEO) will work as data centers. The deal makes Cowboy one of the space industry's fastest-growing "unicorns" -- privately held companies valued at 1 billion dollars and more.
The company's strategy is aimed at forming orbital groups of several thousand (in the future - tens of thousands) satellites for computing and energy purposes. Despite the absence of operational Cowboy vehicles in orbit, current funding demonstrates high investor interest in the space server sector.
The company's first space mission, scheduled for the end of this year, is a small satellite, built in partnership with four-year manufacturer Apex. It is to demonstrate wireless energy transfer from LEO to Earth using infrared lasers. Already at the beginning 2027 2018, Cowboy will deploy the first node of the "Galactic Brain" data center, using NVIDIA Space-1 Vera Rubin modules, designed for AI calculations in low Earth orbit. Cowboy founder and CEO Baiju Bhatt said, that the mission will be the first step toward demonstrating orbital AI computing, which are powered by solar energy.
The above steps will precede the launch of the first proprietary rocket with a one megawatt data center to the end 2028 year. The new hybrid satellite rocket will surpass the 70-meter Falcon in terms of dimensions 9 from SpaceX, however, it will give way to the 120-meter Starship. The target carrying capacity will be 20 000–25 000 Kg. Design work is underway in several cities: satellite engineering in seattle, rocket engine development in Los Angeles. The team includes former SpaceX launch operations director Tyler Grinnell and Warren Lamont, who led the development of rocket engines and booster stages at Blue Origin.
Cowboy designs a launch vehicle, the upper stage and the orbital computing platform as a single integrated system, optimized specifically for AI infrastructure in orbit. The company aims to be the first to create a launch vehicle, the upper stage of which is projected from the very beginning as a data center in orbit. As of today, it is unknown, will Cowboy follow SpaceX in returning and reusing spent rocket parts. The general director emphasized that, that the company projects reusability there, where it makes economic sense, but the main focus is on the most efficient delivery of computing power and energy into orbit.
Source: https://spacenews.com